The Fires of Guilt
by MrandMrsTemple
Summary: After Connor is killed in a fire, Abby ends up paying a guilt trip to someone who isn't sympathetic. Set between ep 3.5 and 3.6.
1. Chapter 1

Abby sat at a bare table in the botany lab at the ARC. Three weeks had passed now since the anomaly had opened at Leek's bunker, three weeks since the accident, three weeks since Connor's funeral. In that time, Abby had tried to take her mind off her grief by keeping herself occupied with anything she could do. Whether it was seeing to the prehistoric plants in the lab or feeding Rex and her other lizards at home. She had found this to be a very effective weapon against her grief and now she had decided to put what had happened behind her. She had naturally been upset when Connor had died, but he was dead now and nothing would ever bring him back. And now it was time to move on without him.

Abby reached for a nearby bottle of pansy spray and turned towards a table she knew had plenty of pot plants on it. But when she looked in that direction there was nothing, nothing at all. In fact, there was not a single plant anywhere in the lab, there weren't even pots. There was just Abby and a whole load of bare tables.

Suddenly she heard a whoosh coming from behind her. She turned to see an anomaly shimmering in the air in front of her, Abby wondered why the anomaly detector's sirens weren't blaring away right now. Then a dark shape appeared just on the other side, it canme forward, revealing itself to be...

"Helen" said Abby in shock and wonder.

"Hello, Abby" said Helen in a cold, metallic voice. Abby turned and ran for the door of the lab, she had to get security up here immediately. But when she tried to open the door she found it was locked. Furiously, desperately she tugged at the door handle.

"I wouldn't waste my time if I were you" said Helen. "Locked doors never open easily." Abby turned to her.

"What do you want?" she asked, trying not to show how frightened she was.

"I think you have something on your mind right now" said Helen.

"Yes" said Abby. "You're right, I do. I'm wondering how come an anomaly can suddenly appear in the ARC without being detected and why you've locked yourself in the lab with me."

"I think there's more than that" said Helen. "Why don't you think back to about three weeks ago, back to that anomaly that opened in Leek's bunker."

Despite her best attempts not to, Abby found her mind rushing backwards in time. An anomaly had opened in the power room at Leek's bunker. By the time the team had gotten there, a scelidosaurus and a megalosaurus were battling it out in the cramped confines of the room. Connor had reacted in a flash as soon as he had seen them, he had rushed forward with the tranquiliser gun at the megalosaurus. Unfortunately the dinosaur had seen him and with one flick of its tail it sent him flying across the room. Connor had landed unconscious on the floor.

'Idiot' Abby had thought at the time. How could anyone be so stupid? She had then proceeded to take a shot at the fighting dinosaurs herself, but found it was no easy task as they both kept moving around so much. Not a single dart pierced their scaly hides. At one point, the secildosaurus had been forced backwards as the megalosaurus lunged for it, it had backed into a shelf and sent several things falling to the ground. One of those things had been a can of paraffin, which upon hitting the floor promptly began to spill out its contents. Meanwhile the battle continued to rage until finally, the megalosaurus made another lunge for the scelidosaurus. But the herbivore had been expecting that and lashed out with its long tail, catching its attacker in the chest. The megalosaurus had been sent stumbling back, right into a fuse box. Sparks had flown, and one landed right on the river of paraffin which had up till now gone unnoticed. Instantly the flames had erupted upwards. The two dinosaurs immediately forgot their quarrel and instead dashed back through the anomaly, desperate to escape the fire.

Soon after the dinosaurs had gone, Abby too made her escape. She had seen enough, the fire was too much. Without a second thought she had turned and run, and not stopped running until she was safely out of the bunker. Miraculously, Danny, Sarah and Becker got out without a scratch on them, but Connor had been nowhere to be seen. By this time the entire bunker was in flames.

"Connor would have expected you to come to him" said Helen, breaking the long silence that had accompanied Abby's thoughts. "Perhaps he would have thought that the woman he loved, the woman who had denied that love and cast him from her home and heart in favour of her slug brother, would at least come to him in his hour of need." A cruel smile appeared on her face. "But he was wrong, wasn't he Abby?"

Abby felt like she had been struck in the face.

"It..it was an accident. I couldn't have done anything...I..."

"Don't lie to me you selfish girl" snapped Helen. "You could have saved him, you could have at least made the effort to try and hold back the flames before they reached him." Abby glared at her.

"Who the hell do you think you are to blame me for Connor's death? You're the one who murdered your own husband in cold blood!"

"At least what I did was good intentions" retorted Helen. "Which is more than I can say for you, Abby Maitland. You knew Connor was in love with you, you always knew. But when the time came to show him that you loved him, you turned and ran. You couldn't be bothered to save him, as far as you were concerned he was just an inconveniance. What better way to be rid of him than to have him fry in an inferno of unspeakable terror?"

Abby broke down into tears and sobbed on to the table. It was untrue what Helen had said about her wanting to get rid of Connor by letting him die, but other than that, every accusation made against her was true. She had had the chance to save Connor. She could have gone looking for a fire extinguisher, Leek would have been bound to have had one somewhere in the bunker. Instead she had turned and ran. She'd thought only of herself, not once did she even think about Connor until it was too late. Helen was right, she had left him to die. She was aware of Helen putting something on the table in front of her, it was small cassette player.

"What's that?" asked Abby.

"I just happened to be passing by that particular anomaly when I heard this" said Helen. "I thought you might like as a little bit of light listening." She smiled wickedly and headed back through the anomaly, which closed behind her. With trembling fingers, Abby reached out to the on button of the player and pressed it.

What she heard could be described as horiffic. At first she heard only the crackling of flames, but then she heard something far worse than that. Panicked screams of fear and pain, Connor's voice calling for her.

"Abby, Abby, ABBY!!. Aaaaaaarrrrgghh!!!!!"

Abby tried desperately to turn the tape off, she couldn't listen to this another minute longer. But she did not turn it off, if anything her actions seemed to make it repeat itself. She heard Connor's frightened cries, and then a final, bloodchilling scream as he was swallowed up by the flames. This time Abby had no control over her tears, it was bad enough she had left Connor to die, but to know that he had died in such fear and pain because of her selfishness. It was more than she could bare. She sobbed long and hard on to the table, her guilt overcoming her just as Connor had been overcome by the fire.


	2. Chapter 2

Abby woke with a start. She was in the botany lab, this time it was full of plants, freshly sprayed by the looks of things.

But what difference did that make? Connor was still gone, and it was all because of Abby. Her face was very wet from the crying she had done in her dream, but she still had many a tear to shed and she buried her face in her hands and let them come. If only she could be with Connor one last time, just to say sorry and tell him how much he meant to her. If only she could...

"Abby, what's wrong?"

Abby sat bolt upright, barely able to believe what she had just heard. Slowly she turned to see Connor, alive and well, standing in the doorway of the botany lab.

"Abby" he said again. "What's the matter?"

"CONNOR!" screamed Abby. She burst from her seat and thrust her arms around him in a hug, she sobbed into his chest. "Oh Connor, I had this dream. I dreamt that, I dreamt..."

"What? Tell me" said Connor. Abby wiped away her tears and told Connor everything that had happened in her dream. As she reached the end of it, he smiled and wiped her tear stained cheeks lovingly.

'Don't worry, Abby. It'll take more than a fire to get rid of me." Abby smiled and looked up at Connor.

"Connor look, I'm really sorry. Ever since you moved out of the flat, I've been treating you like dirt all the time, taking you for granted, putting you down. I'm so sorry for all of that. And I promise you I'll try to get Jack to move out soon."

"And then we'll be together again?" said Connor.

"Yes" said Abby. And together they embraced, and held each other in solitude and love. Just the two of them, always and forever.


End file.
